71-year-old man gets swept into sea, shows up at home a day later needing cash to pay for taxi

Luck comes in many forms. Sometimes it’s the avoidance of disaster and other times it’s the survival of disaster. And other times it’s just the result of being an indomitable bad-ass.

Take, for example, the 71-year-old man in Miyazaki Prefecturewho went missing on April 24 after being swept off his fishing boat…only to appear at home the following day, soaking wet and asking for someone to pay for his taxi.

Fishing has never been an easy job. Stormy seas have claimed the lives of many fishermen, and, despite advances in technology, the profession hardly seems to be getting any better in terms of safety. And Yoshio Yamashita, at the ripe young age of 71, is living proof of just how dangerous the job can be!

On April 24, Yoshio set out, alone, from Nichinan City in Miyazaki Prefecture in his 1.3 ton boat, expecting a normal day of fishing. However, around 4:30 pm, he was swept overboard roughly 2.5 kilometers (about 1.6 miles) offshore. Unfortunately for the fisherman, his boat was operating under automatic steering and continued on its way to port.

Realizing that he would never be able to catch up with his vessel, Yoshio turned towards a pier wall barely visible in the distance. Luckily, the fisherman was wearing a life-vest designed for winter, so staying afloat and keeping warm weren’t major issues. He used a rubber boot–puffed up with air–as an additional flotation device while paddling with his free hand, reaching the shore after around two hours of swimming.

After making landfall, the 71-year-old man was so exhausted that he fell asleep on the ground and didn’t wake up until it was completely dark.

After rousing himself, the fisherman attempted to flag down a car on the highway…but no one would stop for him. Eventually, he arrived at a convenience store and called for a taxi–after having walked three kilometers in his wet clothes and still tired from his swim.

Finally, around 4:30 am on April 25, Yoshio arrived home to find his wife, friends, and other fishermen waiting on word from search parties that had been sent out to look for him.

“Could someone pay the taxi for me?” he asked after getting out of the cab, barefoot.

The search-and-rescue organization hadn’t been notified of the man’s disappearance until after 8:30 pm, long after the fisherman had swum to shore. A helicopter spotted his boat after 10:30 pm, but Yoshio was obviously not on board, which had led to plans to send divers out later that morning.

▼”And I just had this thing cleaned!”

As for Yoshio’s wife, Youko, she was in for two shocks that morning. She said that when her husband arrived home, she swore he was a ghost–not an entirely unreasonable response if you ask us. And then she got to hear his unbelievable story of survival!

Adding to Yoshio’s good luck was the news that he wouldn’t have to buy a new boat as his own had safely made it to the bay unmanned. The boat’s autopilot had, as designed, successfully directed the boat all the way home.

“It was quite the ordeal,” Yoshio told the Asahi Shimbun in an interview, “But I just thought of it like a triathlon.”

Yoshio was taken to the hospital for examination and while he did seem to have a slight case of pneumonia, it doesn’t appear to be anything serious.

As for Yoshio’s advice for surviving being swept overboard into the ocean, he said it was no good to start panicking. Oh, and always, always wear a life vest.